Tested at Newbsanity: Altra Superior 4.0 is great for Obstacle Course Racing
Ever wonder what type of shoe you should use for Obstacle Course Racing? Take all the guesswork out with Altra Running’s Superior 4.0. Last night, Confluence Running & Altra demoed the Superior 4.0 at Newbsanity’s Wednesday Workout. Newbsanity is an Obstacle Course Racing facility that encourages fitness across all ages and demographics.
Pictures from Newbsanity Wednesday Workout
The Superior 4.0 was a great trail shoe to try on this obstacle course, especially when things got slippery. It had plenty of grip with Altra’s MaxTrac Rubber & TrailClaw design. Altra Running’s Superior 4.0 also has a 21mm stack height to provide cushioning for the impacts an OCR participant may encounter. With Altra’s Footshape Toe Box and Zero Drop platform design, the Superior 4.0 is the Superior pick for someone looking to participate in Obstacle Course Racing.
Let’s hear from Altra on why they are the right pick for you.
Luke From Altra
Allow your foot to do what it naturally wants to do. So altra has a foot shaped toe box. A great analogy I like to use for this. Say if you're running on the trails and you trip on a twig and you're about to fall, right? What's your first initial instinct, to put your hands out. You're not going to put your hands out closed, you're going to put your hands out open, because it gets the most support, great for shock absorption. Same thing with the foot, every time your foot's landing down it wants to splay out. If it's in that tapered toe box, your going to lose that activation on your big toe, which causes that arch to collapse in which can cause a huge range of issues: shin splints, plantar fasciitis, knee issues.
Altra also balanced out the weight of our shoes and made it fully cushioned so it's not going to give you an elevated heel. What that elevated heel is going to do is shorten up your soleus muscle and your achilles tendon which are your natural push off muscles. [No elevated heel is] going to give you better alignment and also it doesn't force you to overstride and have that heel drop down first which is like putting on the brakes while your running and cause so much stress.
So again we just want you to get the best activation of how your body naturally wants to run and don't want to influence your foot in any way.
